Thursday preview: Kier reports full year results

Kier Group reports its full year results on Thursday with analysts expecting an increase in earnings compared to a year earlier following the integration of the Mouchel business.

The City predicts the construction, services and property group will report pre-tax profit of £125m, compared to £85.9m the previous year. Earnings per share are estimated to rise to 105p from 95.6p.

“We expect an upbeat assessment from management of Kier outlook, based on both management initiatives and strategy coupled with the wider macro outlook,” said Numis analyst Howard Seymour.

“In terms of the former, Vision 2020 remains the driving force of the group across all divisions and we believe that the integration of Mouchel and associated benefits to the Services division augur well for ongoing growth for the group in the coming year.”

In a trading update in July, Kier said last year’s acquisition of infrastructure engineering and environment business Mouchel and the 2013 purchase of services firm May Gurney have “significantly increased the level of visible, long-term earnings from our Construction and Services divisions”.

At the time, the group said the UK’s vote to leave the European Union on 23 June has had no impact on the business so far, although said Brexit had created some uncertainty.

Numis, which estimates full year pre-tax profit of £126m and EPS of 1205.8p, has taken into account Brexit uncertainty in its forecasts and said it does not expect to have to revisit its projections at the results.

“The macro outlook will inevitably be more varied post the EU Referendum though Kier s focus into existing areas of growth (roads, infrastructure) and scope for more Government action into potential areas of focus (affordable housing, rail) point to a relatively strong backdrop in this respect,” Seymour said.

“Overall, the Kier business model has provided robustness and prudence over the downturn, and into recovery we believe this will drive upper quartile growth - which is not reflected in the annualised 2012/17 price-earnings ratio in line with the sector and yield premium of around 15%. Kier remains our key quality play in the sector.”

Thursday 22 September

INTERIMS
Cambridge Cognition Holdings, Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd.(DI), Hurricane Energy, Mission Marketing Group, Rose Petroleum, Science In Sport, Sphere Medical Holding, Synairgen

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Amino Technologies, Hochschild Mining, Legal & General Group, Low & Bonar, Rio Tinto, Schroders, Wood Group (John)

INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE
BlackRock Latin American Inv Trust, Bovis Homes Group, Christie Group, Crest Nicholson Holdings, Dignity, Drax Group, EMIS Group, Epwin Group, Gamma Communications, Good Energy Group, Henry Boot, Hunters Property , International Public Partnerships Ltd., Irish Continental Group Units, John Laing Infrastructure Fund Ltd, Ladbrokes, Macfarlane Group, Martinco , Midwich Group, Non-Standard Finance, Old Mutual, Pendragon, Petrofac Ltd., Playtech, Quarto Group Inc., Stadium Group, Stilo International, Vitec Group, Weir Group, Zegona Communications

QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE
Fair Oaks Income Fund Limited

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)
Crude Oil Inventories (US) (15:30)
Existing Home Sales (US) (15:00)
GFK Consumer Confidence (GER) (07:00)
House Price Index (US) (14:00)
Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)
Leading Indicators (US) (15:00)

Q2
Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd.(DI)

FINALS
Hansard Global, Haynes Publishing Group

AGMS
Auto Trader Group , Begbies Traynor Group, Byotrol, First Property Group, Kainos Group , Micro Focus International, NCC Group, Twentyfour Income Fund Limited Ord Red

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Mitchells & Butlers

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Ensor Holdings

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE
AdEPT Telecom, BCA Marketplace, Best of the Best, Clipper Logistics , Consort Medical, Hargreaves Services, JRP Group, Mattioli Woods, Newmark Security PLC, Oxford Instruments, Redrow, Standard Life UK Smaller Companies Trust, Stewart & Wight